At Hoover High School, students are required to find beneficial resources and programs that will later on give them the push and guidance they need in order to pursue higher education.

At least half of the students attending Hoover are committed First Generation students, who study hard and work hard to maintain a top spot. In part of their success, programs have been a backbone to the students. But due to cuts in federal funding, programs have been eliminated from public schools.

Programs have prepared students for life after high school.  They gain college guidance, leadership skills, volunteer hours, tutors/mentors, money for college, which are extremely important to students who plan to pursue higher education but don’t have the adequate resources. Programs like SDSU Talent Search, Avenues for Success, and many more important factors to students’ education, have been cut off at the beginning of the 2025-2026 School year. Students have been highly affected by this drastic change in their school community.

“Avenues for Success being removed was something very sad to see and it affected me personally,” stated Ashley Meza, former Avenues for Success attendee. “I no longer had a support system I could rely on and I had to look for new programs and people I could rely on if I ever needed help.”

Ashley is not alone. Other students have been struggling with acquiring a foundation of help.

Deep cuts to federal funding to help offset the cost of tax cuts for the wealthy and corporations are deeply impacting students and families. Here at Hoover, students are struggling to find programs that have accessibility. They have become extremely competitive, making it difficult to find help when needed. As for now, students can only hope for a big change in the school system, because currently students have a higher motivation to pursue higher education.